Last Money In

The Need for Speed: Why Secondary VC Opportunities Require Faster Decisions The secondary market in venture capital has transformed dramatically as highlighted in this weeks’ Last Money In blog post (full article in comments). Here's why LPs need to move quickly when evaluating these deals: What's driving this volatility? - Public market successes influencing private valuations (Palantir up 5x+ in 12 months affecting defense tech comps) - Regulatory changes causing swift sentiment shifts (particularly in crypto and defense) - AI acceleration changing business economics (Cursor reaching $100M ARR faster than any company in history) - New US administration driving risk asset prices upward - Compressed fundraising cycles for top companies (6-12 months vs traditional 12-24 months) The speed of change is remarkable: Examples below: - Kraken: $7.50/share → $24/share (Dec 2023 to now) - Lightmatter: $13/share → $65/share? - Anthropic: $22/share → $77/share - SpaceX: $87/share → $235/share (with 50%+ jump after election results) Unlike public markets that typically avoid 20%+ overnight swings, private valuations can shift dramatically overnight - often triggered by financing events or major company/political developments. The takeaway for LPs: While thorough diligence remains crucial, evaluating secondary opportunities requires a faster timeline than primary financings. Delays of even a few days can mean missing opportunities entirely or paying 2-3x higher prices. We see this too often as syndicate leads. Secondary deals represent some of the most interesting opportunities in today's market - but only for those who can move at the pace the market demands. -- Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In is the most actionable Venture Capital newsletter with 60k+ readers. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, global syndicate leaders with 900+ VC SPVs closed.

?? New Sydecar data reveals explosive growth in secondary market SPVs Alex Pattis & I are excited to share Last Money In’s latest deep dive analyzing exclusive data from leading fund administrator Sydecar that paints a clear picture of where private market capital is flowing. The High-Impact Metrics ?? Secondary SPV Growth on Sydecar: A staggering 470% increase in 2024 compared to 2023 ?? Elite Eight Dominance: Just 8 companies (Anduril, Anthropic, Groq, OpenAI, Perplexity, SpaceX, Stripe, x.AI) captured 77% of all secondary dollars on Sydecar in 2024 ?? Forward Momentum: 2025 is projected to double 2024's already record-setting dollars invested in secondary SPVs on Sydecar The Structural Shifts ? Private Timeline Extension: Median time to IPO now exceeds 10 years (more than double what it was in 2000) ?? Market Size Explosion: Secondary transaction volume surpassed $150B in 2024, a 35% CAGR since 2019 ?? Capital Concentration: SpaceX (17%), Anthropic (15%), and OpenAI (12%) lead all transactions - most dollars are going after the same few opportunities ?? Sector Focus: AI and frontier technologies including aerospace, defense & robotics have become the dominant interest areas for secondary capital The Unexpected Findings ? Speed Paradox: Despite perceived complexity, secondary SPVs close in just 34 days vs 47 days for primaries (28% faster) on Sydecar ?? Extreme Concentration: 77% of secondary deals flow to just 8 companies despite hundreds of companies with liquid secondaries ?? Secondary Surge: The "Elite Eight" attracted a 10x increase in capital from $481M in 2024 vs $48M in 2023 on Sydecar We dive deeper in this week's Last Money In article - full post link in comments. Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In is the most actionable Venture Capital newsletter with over 60,000 subscribers. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, the global syndicate leaders with 800+ VC SPVs closed.

Emerging managers are facing one of the hardest fundraising climates we’ve seen. Fundraising timelines are stretching longer, and many managers are closing on less capital than they originally targeted. But despite these challenges, they’re finding ways to stay in the game—SPVs being one of the most powerful tools at their disposal. SPVs allow managers to maintain their investing cadence while fundraising, giving them a way to supplement committed capital on a deal-by-deal basis. At the same time, LPs—especially high-net-worth individuals and family offices—are becoming more selective in how they allocate capital. Many want exposure to hyper-scale companies like OpenAI, xAI, and SpaceX but prefer the flexibility of direct deal participation over committing to a full fund. SPVs create a win-win: LPs get targeted exposure, and GPs have the opportunity to earn carry without needing to raise an entire fund. We’re also seeing SPVs play a growing role in the secondaries market. With several quarters of record-low venture returns, LPs are increasingly looking to late-stage, pre-IPO companies for quicker liquidity. Emerging managers don’t often have direct cap table access to these companies, but some are finding ways in through secondaries—and SPVs are making it possible. Unlike primary investments, secondaries don’t require company or board approval, making SPVs an ideal structure for these transactions. It’s inspiring to see how emerging managers are adapting to the ever-changing VC landscape. PitchBook recently covered this trend and included some Sydecar data on SPV activity—worth a read for anyone thinking about how to take on today’s market. Read more here:

The Explosive Growth of Secondary SPV Markets Exciting new data from Sydecar reveals unprecedented growth in secondary Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for private market investments. This week Last Money In shared Sydecar's secondary SPV transaction data to highlight what is taking place in the private markets (link to full post in comments). ?? Key Findings: - Secondary transaction volume surpassed $150B in 2024 (35% CAGR since 2019) - Secondary-focused SPVs on Sydecar grew 470% in 2024 compared to 2023 - Secondary deals close 28% faster than primary investments (34 days vs 47 days) - 77% of secondary deals are concentrated in just 8 tech leaders: Anduril, Anthropic, Groq, OpenAI, Perplexity, SpaceX, Stripe, and x.AI - This "Elite Eight" has become a gravitational center for secondary market capital. Collectively, these companies have attracted over $481 million in investment through Sydecar's secondary market infrastructure—representing a 10-fold increase from the $48 million deployed to these same companies in 2023. Looking ahead to 2025 The secondary SPV sector is expected to continue its explosive growth despite potential high-profile IPOs, with historical data showing over 65% of institutional investors redirecting liquidity from previous tech IPOs back into private markets. While concerning trends exist—including companies implementing restrictive transfer policies and evolving legal documentation with anti-syndication provisions—the convergence of transformative technologies like AI (projected to create $15.7 trillion in global economic value by 2030) continues to drive institutional interest, positioning secondary markets to expand due to the efficiency and flexibility SPVs offer investors. -- Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In is the most actionable Venture Capital newsletter with 60k+ readers. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, global syndicate leaders with 900+ VC SPVs closed.

Carried Interest → Perspectives from ~400 SPVs After 6+ years leading ~400 SPVs, I’ve gained a bunch of insights into how I think about carried interest as a syndicate lead. This weekend, I share these insights via Last Money In (link to post in comments). Here's the TL;DR: ?? The Long View: Even promising seed-stage investments can take 8-15 years to reach liquidity. The highest upside sits here, but you'll need to be patient. ?? Early-Stage Potential: My biggest wins have primarily come from pre-seed/seed deals at $5M-20M valuations (a few outliers where we entered higher), with some delivering 100x+ returns. The non-consensus bets at this stage can be career-defining, but you've got to diversify to hit. ?? Late-Stage Value: We’re ramping up growth/pre-IPO deals. While they typically yield 2-10x+ rather than 100x returns, they offer reduced risk, shorter hold periods, and often greater LP interest i.e. more carry as a syndicate lead. ?? The Math Matters: A larger investment with a smaller multiple can generate more carried interest than a smaller early-stage deal: - Early-Stage: $100K at $10M valuation → 10x return (assume 20% dilution) → $138K in carry - Later-Stage: $500K at $1B valuation → 4x return (assume 20% dilution)? → $220K in carry ?? Partnership Philosophy: For co-syndications, I prefer 50/50 carry splits regardless of capital contribution. Long term relationships > maximizing individual deal economics. ?? LP Management: Build long-term relationships. We'll do things that hurt our economics to optimize for good, larger & long-term LPs like provide carry breaks on larger LPs ($100K+ commitments) and through our subscription model Deal Sheet we launched in Q1, 2024. Link to full post in comments. -- Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In is the most actionable Venture Capital newsletter with 60k+ readers. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, global syndicate leaders with 900+ VC SPVs closed.

?? Just published: "What Really Drives Investment Interest in SPVs?" After managing over 500 SPVs across market cycles and closely tracking LP response patterns, we've compiled our guide on what drives investment interest in SPVs. From our experience, there’s a hierarchy of influence factors: The High-Impact Drivers? - Lead Investor Quality: A premier firm like Sequoia or USV writing a substantial first check remains one of the highest impact signals? - Founder Pedigree: Tier 1 founders (previous unicorn builders) can override almost any other consideration - Traction Metrics: The scale matters more than the multiple - $1M→$10M ARR growth commands significantly more attention than $100K→$1M - Market Buzz: OpenAI would generate extraordinary interest even at $300B, but buzz alone couldn't save say a company like Bolt from valuation concerns despite its buzziness The Mid-Tier Influences? - Industry Category: AI, security and frontier/deep tech consistently outperform in terms of LP interest in this market - Syndicate Lead Track Record: This compounds over time but rarely overrides deal fundamentals - Round Structure & Terms: Clean deal mechanics with fair valuations enhance LP confidence but rarely salvage fundamentally uncompelling opportunities The Tactical Elements? - Strategic Follow-ups: Limit to 1-2 high-value updates to avoid LP fatigue - Investment Memo Length: Counterintuitively, less is often more? - Founder Q&As: More confirmatory than determinative - can help or hurt depending on founder presentation skills - Fee Optimization: Only truly relevant as a tie-breaker in widely syndicated deals We dive into this topic and much more in this weeks Last Money In article - link to full post in the comments Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In is the most actionable Venture Capital newsletter with over 60,000 subscribers. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, the global syndicate leaders with 800+ VC SPVs closed.

We are launching a Deal Sheet App! We are always listening to our customers' feedback, and have some big news... We are launching a Mobile App for Deal Sheet. This new mobile experience will help customers/accredited investors access syndicated deals instantly as they become available and keep you in the know while you are on the run. We’re excited to have partnered with Rapid Dev to bring this vision to life. They are one of the top companies in the space and the experience with them has been amazing so far. They came to the first call with our entire app sketched out as wireframes. Then took 2 weeks to bounce around different ideas and features that they thought our subscribers would love. It feels like a true partnership, and we are very excited to bring this app to life very soon! Check out our progress below. More announcements as we launch to follow! cc: Zachary Ginsburg / Matt Graham ????

The IRL Syndicate Strategy This week via Last Money In, I wrote about how I would get started as a syndicate lead today and build a power syndicate (link to full post in the comments). One thing we do not see much of, but is a great way to get started is to focus on IRL founder pitches and LP events. While this doesn’t scale if the goal is to run 30+ deals per year, it is a great way to build your syndicate brand and also build deeper relationships with both LPs & founders. When I started running SPVs, I would host these founder meet-n-greets with the founders I was putting an SPV together with. While I do not do this much anymore, below is an example of a syndicate that is heavily focused on IRL events and doing a great job in building an investing community. Meet Kelley Arena & Annie Evans… I met Kelley Arena of Golden Hour Ventures & Annie Evans of Dream Ventures and I loved how they have really focused on operating this syndicate in more of an in-person community experience. Golden Hour Ventures and Dream Ventures operate with the intention of bringing education and community to angel investing and deal flow. They deploy capital 3-6 times/ year. For each of their deals, they source carefully based on stage (Seed+ to Series A), industry (consumer, consumer tech, women's health), and their investor network's appetite. Their network is mostly women, spanning industries and expertise, all with their own superpowers and spheres of influence. For a founder to be the right fit for their syndicate, they see the value in having a group of invested ambassadors, who often are the brand's consumer, on the cap table. IRL STRATEGY... What makes their model unique is that they host investor events for the network, often roadshowing in NYC, LA and Miami, where the founder pitches live and fields an Ask-Me-Anything style of Q&A. They often pair this with angel investing education, with the intention of bringing in a new class of investor, and demystifying the asset class. Post-deployment, their investor syndicates will meet with the founder 1-2x year, IRL and virtual, to get investor updates, meet the other investors, and brainstorm on ways to amplify the brand. -- Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In is the most actionable Venture Capital newsletter with 60k+ subscribers. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, global syndicate leaders with 800+ VC SPVs closed.

Last Money In hosted our 5th Quarterly Syndicate Lead/Investor Dinner w/Sydecar yesterday in New York. These dinners are really the only time syndicate leads get together in-person, therefore we look forward to continuing these dinners and meeting/learning from more investors & syndicate leads :) A big thanks for coming Jonathan Wasserstrum, Ben Zises, Jeffrey Shu, Drew Austin, John Gannon, Sara Garson, David Yakobovitch, Matthew Weinberg, Chris Bordeaux, Rahul Chaudhary, Zachary Ginsburg, Jake Don Sing. (we will continue to work on our group picture taking skills)

Thanks for the feature beehiiv!